This research highlights how less accessible individual products and associations that are part of a brand category can influence consumers' brand-related judgments.Altering the brand category context in which a brand extension is introduced can increase the salience of these less accessible products and associations.In situations where this information is diagnostic, individuals base their extension judgments on a different set of dimensions than they would if the extension had been presented in the context of just the brand name.The data collected provided evidence that these brand context changes affected the temporary representations used to judge a new extension.